MUMBAI: Publicis.Sapient, the digital business transformation hub of Publicis Groupe, has recently appointed two new executives from the global retail and technology giants Tesco and Amazon as it grows its capability to help clients build businesses of the future.

Tilak Doddapaneni will take the position of global head of engineering at Publicis.Sapient. Prior to this, Doddapaneni was online engineering director at Tesco. In his new role, he will report to Publicis Groupe lead digitalbusiness transformation and CEO Nigel Vaz.

Rakesh Ravuri, who has held a succession of senior engineering roles at Amazon, will join as chief technology officer for programming languages and cloud and global head of engineering for retail. He will play a key leadership role in Publicis.Sapient’s extensive operations in India. Ravuri will report to Doddapaneni. Both Doddapaneni and Ravuri are Sapient alumni.

Publicis.Sapient EMEA and APAC CEO Nigel Vaz said, “I’m delighted that Tilak and Rakesh will be joining Publicis.Sapient on our journey to build our engineering capability as part of our product engineering approach to deliver digital business transformation for our clients. Tilak has exceptional pedigree as a senior leader driving transformational change for one of the world’s biggest retailers through an appreciation of the power that technology and engineering have, as well as an understanding of how to apply that in the evolution of product and experience.”

“His wealth of experience makes him the right person to lead the implementation of our agile engineering model globally. Rakesh comes to us having recently successfully led the engineering team that developed Amazon delivery, one of the most significant revenue generating businesses for a global technology and retail leader,” he added.

Commenting on his new role Doddapaneni said, “As someone who is passionate about engineering and running large software systems, I am excited to return to Sapient, which continues to lead the way as a digital transformation company that uniquely combines strategy, experience and engineering disciplines to help clients reimagine and transform their businesses for a digital age. Building a company that has, develops and attracts world-class engineering talent is what has brought me back to Sapient.”

Pubilics.Sapient chief technology officer Rakesh Ravuri said, “The industry is at an inflection point and technology has moved from support role to the driver’s seat. Sapient is right at the centre of this, with its focus on digital business transformation. I am excited to have a chance to play a leading role in the engineering transformation both for Sapient and its clients.”

Doddapaneni will lead the entire technology delivery community across Publicis.Sapient globally. In addition to client success and engineering and delivery excellence, he will focus on the talent development, performance metrics, and breakthrough engineering practices required by digital business transformation clients in their modern test and learn environments.

Ravuri brings a wealth of knowledge in cloud platforms, service design and agile engineering gained as director of software development at Amazon.